


Video Cassettes of the Sci-Fi Kind

by XmagicalX (Xparrot)



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Juvenilia, Television Watching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1997-04-07
Updated: 1997-04-07
Packaged: 2017-10-09 06:14:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/83903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xparrot/pseuds/XmagicalX
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mulder and Scully watch a couple of movies together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Video Cassettes of the Sci-Fi Kind

**Author's Note:**

> I'd just like to say a few things. First, THANK YOU, everyone   
> who responded to my first fanfic, "Sound Minds." I LOVE   
> feedback, particularly the positive kind. Now that that's said,   
> I'll admit that this is nothing like that one. There's no real   
> plot, and not even any MSR (sorry, 'shippers) just two friends.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: The movies aren't mine, but I really can't say whose   
> they are. Scully and Mulder aren't mine either, but if you're   
> reading FANfic you should know that already. If you are a fan,   
> you also know they're the property of Chris Carter and 10-13   
> Productions so I shouldn't really have to tell you all this.   
> It's just I'm a little paranoid about getting sued. Oh, and   
> though I'm not making a dime off of it, the story itself is   
> copyright (c) me, 1997. Now onto the fiction!

Scully stared straight ahead and tried to figure out how she had   
gotten herself into this.

She and Mulder had been working at the office, late as usual.   
Thank goodness the case was over (not at all a nice affair; she   
was going to have unpleasant images of burnt victims in her minds   
for quite a while) but there was still an Everest of paperwork to   
write up. The partners scaled it diligently, but it took time.   
Scully almost moaned when she glanced at her watch.

"It's already half past seven!"

"Don't worry, we're almost done," Mulder replied. "A few more   
forms to sign, a few more numbers to crunch, and we'll be out of   
here."

Scully glared at the papers. "Mulder. It's a Friday night.   
Normal people are out relaxing or partying or going to the movies   
or something."

"Do you have a date?" he asked. "Or will it be just you and a   
bubble bath?"

Scully's glare moved from the papers up to her partner. "Is   
nothing sacred to you?" she said automatically. But she   
regretted the words the moment they came from her mouth. Quite a   
few things were sacred to him, in fact...

Fortunately he took it just the right way. "Sure there are! My   
videos, for example..." Trailing off just waiting for her   
rejoinder.

Just like best friends. Which of course they were. It was only   
that they had so much pressure on them sometimes. She worried   
about him a lot; she sometimes felt like she had to walk on   
eggshells when talking with him, and she wasn't particularly good   
at that. And it wasn't necessary. Just because he was   
vulnerable occasionally didn't mean that sometimes, most of the   
times, he was at least as strong as she was.

She had definitely been doing too much paperwork if she was going   
off on reveries like this. Mulder noticed it. "I thought I was   
the one out in space, Scully."

"I was looking for you there," she told him sweetly. "So what   
are you doing tonight?"

"Are we looking for a date?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at   
her.

"With /you/?"

"It was worth a try. In answer to your question, I'm going to   
watch some movies--I just bought a couple yesterday."

Scully rolled her eyes. "Let me guess. 'Nora Does Norway'? Or   
maybe 'Attack of the 50 Foot Succubus'?"

"Now /there's/ a film I'd like to get my hands on!" Mulder   
exclaimed. "Ever seen it?" Her groan was a more than sufficient   
answer. "No," he continued, growing only a hair more serious.   
"Tonight's for some true science fiction. One of 'em's 'ID4.'"

"Huh?"

Mulder stared at her. "'Independence Day?' Aliens blow up the   
White House? Biggest movie of last year?"

"Oh yeah, I heard of it. Didn't really want to see it."

He shrugged. "You're missing a great ride. But the other movie's   
even better--I finally found on video the full director's cut of   
'The Abyss.'"

Scully, sitting on the couch reviewing the evening, winced   
mentally. Yes, that was the exact moment that had lead to this   
one. Because instead of just saying "That's nice" or some such,   
she had to go and say,

"The what?"

His expression was shocked. "You've never heard of 'The Abyss?'"

"Mulder, you know I'm not really into cheesy sci-fi."

"It's not cheesy. It's not totally sci-fi even. It's just   
totally cool. It was big when it came out..."

"In the '50s?"

"Late eighties, Scully. It's a recent one. Made by the same guy   
who did the 'Terminator' films and 'Aliens'--"

"I've never seen those," Scully told him. "Like I said, not my   
sort of film. Explosions and guns do not a masterpiece make,   
Mulder."

"If you'd seen them you would know that they actually do have   
plot along with the explosions. What do you like in a film?"

"Oh," Scully leaned back, ignored the paperwork. She was willing   
to talk about almost anything to ignore it. "Plot is good. Good   
acting, directing, etc, of course." She smiled. "Maybe a little   
romance, if it's not sappy." Then she smiled directly at him,   
teasing. "A really cute star..."

"Like me? Think I should go Hollywood?"

She eyed him critically, then declared, "Stick to the FBI." No   
matter what she really thought, she was /not/ going to inflate   
his ego!

"I'm wounded, Scully. But seriously, you have to see 'The   
Abyss.' You're missing something good. Hey," as if the idea had   
only just entered his head, "Why don't you watch it with me   
tonight?"

"Does that work on all the girls?"

Now he rolled his eyes. "Not a date."

"Just a movie at your house."

"And dinner. How does pizza sound to you?"

Scully's stomach suddenly realized what time it was and spoke to   
her urgently. "Really good," she admitted.

"Then come on. We need something relaxing to do."

"I thought /I/ was supposed to urge /you/ to relax."  
Mulder grinned. "I've got a doctorate too, you know." And with   
a few more protests Scully agreed.

Which explained why she was now sitting on Mulder's couch with a   
paper plate on her lap, eating a pizza slice with everything   
while Mulder fiddled with the VCR. It kept spitting the tape   
back out at him. At last he gave the obstinate machine a thump   
with his fist, and it hastily sucked in the cassette.

He jumped onto the couch. Scully noted that he seemed to be   
jumping everywhere, bouncy as a hyperactive child. It made him   
look that age, actually. She often noticed that Mulder managed   
to appear simultaneously five and thirty-five years of age; right   
now it was the younger half that was most prominent.

She had taken possession of the remote and as soon as he had   
settled onto the couch next to her she hit "play." First she   
fast-forwarded through the previews, then the FBI warning flashed   
on. 

"Say, Scully, if I made and sold a copy, would you arrest me?"

"I'd have no choice, Mulder," she dead-panned back at him.

"Of course if you did it, then I'd be forced to cuff you..."

"Stop fantasizing, Mulder."

And the movie began. Mulder went silent the moment the credits   
started to appear on the screen, gazing raptly as the title   
flashed to life. Scully watched with a more detached air. She   
didn't automatically think it was going to be a lousy movie, but   
neither was she to be won over by simple credits.

The movie moved quickly, she had to admit. In no time a sub had   
gone down and DeepCore was called in to rescue it. The   
underwater filming was well done, the actors weren't half-bad,   
and there was indeed a plot among the action. It even had a   
little romance, and not overwhelming the movie, either. The only   
thing she had mentioned that it lacked was the cute star; Ed   
Harris wasn't Harrison Ford, after all. But he did have rather   
interesting eyes, very light blue. She had seen Mulder's hazel   
eyes nearly that light in certain situations. Right now they   
were dark and reflected the glow of the television like a mirror.

She snuck glances at her partner whenever she knew she could   
afford to miss seeing what was happening onscreen, which wasn't   
all that often. As the movie progressed he slowly leaned closer   
toward the TV, until he had slid off the couch and was sitting on   
the floor by her legs. He didn't say anything, but she   
eventually realized that he was mouthing most of the lines along   
with the actors.

"Mulder, how many times have you seen this?" she hissed.  
He pulled himself back from the screen and smiled at her. "Seven   
times, why?"

"Why do you want to see a film that you've seen so many times   
you've memorized it?"

"Scully," he said. He managed to put tone in the whisper, a   
calm, patient tone she knew quite well. He used it either when   
being his most logical, or when he was explaining the most wild   
theory he had for a particular case. In this case it was the   
former use. "I memorize any film I've ever seen, no matter how   
many times I see it."

"Oh. Yes."

"Don't tell me you forgot," he said, grinning.

"I don't have an eidetic--"

"Shh," he waved her quiet suddenly. "This's an important part."

They watched a tentacle of water snake across the screen. Scully   
was minorly impressed by the special effects; she knew that when   
the movie came out they must have been quite incredible.   
Computers had advanced a lot in the past eight years; what   
effects that were so astounding on the big screen then were found   
on TV shows now.

From then on neither of them spoke until the ending credits began   
to roll. Scully started to rewind the tape. Mulder removed his   
eyeballs from the screen and turned them onto her. "So," he   
demanded, "what do you think?"

Scully blinked. "Okay," she said. "You were right."

"I was right?"

"That was a good movie. I am glad that you didn't let me miss   
it."

His face lit up in a huge smile. Just like a kid who's done   
something his mother approves of.

Now why, Scully wondered, am I always comparing him to children?   
Because that's what he's like, another part of her mind replied.   
Very intelligent, not really that immature, but he often seems   
to project an air of innocence. As if he can't do wrong and he   
doesn't know anyone who can. And /that/ was completely   
inaccurate; Mulder had had enough wrongs done to and around him   
to ruin the innocence of a dozen children. Yet still...

"Isn't it great? The special effects are great but I like the   
ideas in it even more."

"Yeah," Scully agreed. "It's nice to see aliens that aren't out   
to blow us up. They were sort of corny in the end--"

"Scully!"

"Well, it was, with the chorus score and all, but I did like the   
idea."

Mulder nodded. "The novel made of it, it's better than a regular   
novelization, the novel is quite good. Written by a top science   
fiction author and it expands on some of the ideas while still   
following the movie exactly. If you're interested--"

"I don't read science fiction, Mulder."

"You said you didn't watch it, either." He didn't give her time   
to form a comeback, instead ejected the first tape and stuck in   
the second. "Now this is a good movie, too, but that's mainly   
because of the special effects." And he went quiet the same way   
he had before, as soon as the title "Independence Day" came on.

Scully was interested in the first part, when the flying saucers   
first appeared and everyone ran around wondering what to do. She   
could see her partner in two of the roles. Either he would be   
racing to warn the president, or he would be on a rooftop   
somewhere trying to get their attention. She could also picture   
herself, trying to hold him back in either case. Now that would   
be an interesting sight to wake up to, alien spacecraft hovering   
over the city and Mulder running around like crazy beneath them.

Then the aliens started their by-now-famous attack and blew the   
White House and in fact most of the agents' city of DC to its   
component atoms. Scully supposed that the effects were probably   
even better in the cinema; on the TV they were excellent. But   
after that...special effects couldn't hold her attention forever,   
not after the week she had had. She dozed off when the scientist   
began to write an impossible computer virus. Her last thought   
was that it would only work in a movie, so the characters were   
pretty lucky that they were in one at the time.

Scully awoke from an odd dream about the Abyss aliens fighting   
those from ID4 sometime later. By the TV screen's dim blue light   
she checked her watch; it was almost two AM. And she was   
apparently sleeping over at Mulder's apartment. She considered   
leaving, but she thought that Mulder would mind more if she left   
than if she stayed. Besides, she was quite comfortable at the   
moment. 

Unlike her partner. Mulder was sprawled out on the floor,   
propped up against the couch, legs stretched out before him and   
his head tilted back, resting on the couch cushions. He would   
have a bad crick in his neck from sleeping like that. Scully   
reached out and shook his shoulder, to wake him up enough so that   
he'd change position.  
At her touch his eyelids snapped open and he sat up. "Scully?"

"I'm here, Mulder," she murmured reassuringly. From the way he   
woke up, she guessed he had been dreaming. Probably something   
unpleasant, the way he dreamed. She kept her hand resting on his   
shoulder.

His eyes, though open, looked blank. "Where...what..."

"We're at your house, and we're both fine," she assured him. "Go   
to sleep."

She rubbed his shoulder. His eyes closed and he settled back   
down in a more comfortable position. She was half-asleep herself   
when he mumbled, "Scully?"

"Yes?"

"When they come, what will they be like?"

Scully heard the plaintive naivete in the question. He sounded   
more like a child than ever. Talking in his sleep, she decided. 

 

Still, it was a typical Mulder question. There was no need to   
ask who "they" was. And also, the wording. Not if. /When/ they   
come. For Mulder, it was never a question that they existed.

There was no way she could have been his partner for this long   
without having thought of some of this already. She answered his   
question in part the way she thought he wanted, and in part what   
she herself thought of it. "If they come, I think they'll be   
like us. Some of them will be good like in 'The Abyss' and some   
will be bad like in 'Independence Day' and most will just be   
there. They'll talk to us and be confused and we'll talk to them   
and we won't always understand each other, but we won't always be   
fighting, either."

She wondered how true that really was. If there were beings out   
there not from earth, and at this point she was almost convinced   
that there were, then they could be evil. They might have   
kidnapped his sister. They might burn people and examine people   
and kill people. But humans did that, too. And there were some   
people that were very close to being totally evil. Just because   
some were bad guys didn't mean they all had to be.

She didn't say any thing more. Mulder didn't either; his even   
breathing told her he was asleep. In a few minutes she joined   
him.

Scully left the next morning, as soon as she and Mulder awoke.   
He didn't have much around for breakfast, so they went to Dunkin'   
Donuts together. Then she ordered him to go shopping and to buy   
something to eat in the mornings that wasn't birdseed, bade him   
good-bye, and returned home for her missed bubble bath.  
She saw him again on Monday of course. Scully was at the office   
a good half hour before he got there. He came in to see her   
closely examining a file.

"Good morning! What's that, our newest case?"

She didn't respond. Mulder frowned and looked at his desk,   
papers covering it. Was one of them a case file? "Did you finish   
up the paperwork from Friday?"

When she didn't reply, he strode over and stood looking down at   
her. "Scully!"

She started and folded the file hurriedly, meekly looked up at   
him towering overhead. "Yes? Good morning, Mulder."

"Did you finish up the paperwork?" he repeated.

"Umm...no, I'm sorry, I didn't."

"Are you looking at a new case?"

Scully snuck a glance down at the file in her hands. "No, we   
haven't gotten one yet. I think Skinner's letting us finish with   
the report from the last one."

"Letting us or making us?" Mulder asked wryly. "If not a new   
case, then what, pray tell, are you examining so closely?"

In the dim light it was hard to see the little flush of pink in   
her cheeks. "Nothing much."

"No, what?" He reached down and snatched the file from her hands   
before she could yank it away. "Scully, this case is from a year   
ago--" he began, then opened it up. "Ahhh."

Scully covered her face with one hand.

"Now, Scully," he said, carefully laying the file down on the   
desk, "what have we here?" And he lifted out the book she had   
been concealing in the file.

In the light the cover was ragged and beat up; it was a second-  
hand book she had just bought the day before. Nevertheless the   
title could be read clearly: /The Abyss/.

Scully looked from it to the smiling eyes of her partner. "Now   
Scully," he began, and she knew he was going to play with this   
for a while afterwards, "I thought you didn't read sci-fi."


End file.
